Winner Winner

Chicken dinner?

How about a pair of of these beautiful pillows instead!

They were the favorite chosen by the of the winner of my blog giveaway- Coasting Anon!

(As as side note, not only is the winner a lucky lady because she now owns these pillows, she's also Mom to one of THE cutest kiddos around. And she writes a fabulous blog which you should check out!)

A huge THANK YOU to Elizabeth of Lilybethgoodies for making this giveaway possible. If you make a purchase from her shop, make sure to let her know that I sent you!

Check back tomorrow- I'll be needing some advice about a big makeover project!

Living Room Source List

I am beyond amazed that anyone wants to know, but since there were a few questions about the living room, here you go! (And don't forget you still have the rest of today to enter the pillow giveaway!)

Wall color: Silvery Moon by Benjamin Moore


Trim color: Decorator's White by Benjamin Moore


That fabulous rug: Fallon Grey and Ivory Contemporary Rug by Jill Rosenwald for CSN Rugs


The chairs I can't get enough of: Lulu Chair in Flourish Smoke by Urban Outfitters. (I'd really call these more blue than smoke.)


Couch: Lounge Sofa 83" by Crate and Barrel- we chose a custom fabric (and I can't remember the name...) which increased the cost (and wait time) quite a bit but we're glad we invested in a couch we really love. A huge thank you to The Less Than Domestic Goddess for blogging about the couch and bringing my attention to it!

Pillows: Lilybethgoodies etsy shop


The curtains were from Target but I don't think they're staying.

The coffee table was a hand me down from my hubs' family and it is just by a special miracle that the legs match the design in the carpet. I'm considering painting it... thoughts?


I can't believe that no one asked, but the color-coordinated schnauzer came on special order from a farm in Southern Maryland. We chose the sofa color to match his fur but of course he prefers sleeping on the chairs.

Pillow Pair Giveaway

In my hunt for the perfect pillows for the couch in my living room, I stumbled upon the Etsy shop Lilybethgoodies, where I found these beauties:

which you might have noticed chilling on our new living room couch:


I had contacted the shop owner, Elizabeth, with a few questions prior to my order and was so impressed with how sweet and helpful she was. She even included in my order a set of handmade coasters in the same gorgeous fabric as the pillows as a gift! Her shop is filled to the brim with beautifully made pillows in so many patterns and colors, and she has agreed to gift one lucky reader of mine with their choice of any pair of cushion covers in her shop! In return, she asks only that you send her a photo of the pillows on display in your home.

Here are some more that I love:




To enter, please click over to her shop and find your favorite item of hers. (She wanted me to mention that you can choose any pair of pillows that you'd like, provided that it's available in her shop next week when the winner is announced.) Come back and leave a comment here with your favorite item. I'll choose one comment at random to win the pair of pillows.
Commenters who also follow this blog (this is different from subscribing- see sidebar at right to become a follower) will receive one extra entry. You have until midnight on Tuesday to enter... good luck!

Thank you!

Thank you all so much for your wonderful comments and suggestions about the living room! I am loving your ideas for a reading nook or desk area in the back of the living room. At first I wanted to keep the room free of any other bookcase-like furniture because of the built ins (I can't tell you how excited I am to be able to stick the television on the shelf and avoid having one of those huge tv stands), but now I'm on the hunt for the perfect pieces for that spot. A few thoughts...

Because clearly I'm obsessed with Urban Outfitters' furniture:



Or what about a desk like this one:


I did decide to try this mirror over the fireplace (the reviews say it's not quite as gold in person, but I will let you know when it arrives!):


The hubs has big plans to start refinishing the dining room floor this weekend- so it's HELLO dust again around here for sure. Happy Friday!

Living Room Revealed!

The living room is my favorite room in the house. It's where we spend the most time, and it's definitely the space I've thought the most about decorating. (And it's the first space I've ever really decorated- so be kind!) I chose all cool colors but I still think the room feels warm and cozy.

But a confession: after living here for three months and obsessively considering the decorating possibilities, the living room's still not done! And I am so tired of it not being done! And I am so tired of not showing pictures of it! So here it is in it's half-finished glory; I'm hoping you all will have some fabulous suggestions on how to make it perfect!






Speaking of unfinished, the back part of the living room is sort of this no-man's land that I have no idea what to do with. The rug there is not going to stay (it's covering up a particularly bad area of the floor we haven't refinished yet), and it's not big enough for much, but it needs something.



These pictures are waiting here for me to commit to where I want them to hang.


More blank wall space crying for some attention (and if you like those patterned pillows, you might want to check back later on this week *hint hint*):


These three frames are just a placeholder for what I hope to be the perfect accent piece or mirror above the fireplace:


And lest you forget from where we came, some YELLOW! to help you reminisce:


It worked well as camouflage for the gorgeous trim don't you think?


Paint works magic.


So there it is, a work in progress. Do you have any suggestions for me?

Top Oh! The Morning to You

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today's a big deal if you have an O' in your name! I'll be enjoying it with a few of my favorite green things...

Favorite pair of eyes:

Photo credit: Samantha Warren

Favorite drink:

Starbucks Homemade Iced Green Tea Latte. In a Guinness glass just to be extra festive.

Favorite grumpy leprechaun:

No schnauzers were harmed in the celebration of this holiday. One, however, might have consumed a few too many treats.

No green beer for me tonight since I gave up drinking for Lent (OMG I know). How are you celebrating?

Catch up

Whoa, how are we half way through March? Things have been crazy around here. I think we've finally woken up from our winter don't-want-to-do-ANY-more-house-renovation hibernating and projects are popping up left and right.

But don't worry... all work and no play? I forget the saying but I'm pretty sure it's bad for you. We recently headed to West Virginia with some friends for the weekend for a little bit of this:


We've discussed before how hubs is an amazing skier and I can just barely get myself down the mountain, so I'm sure you're not surprised to see my awkwardness in action.

Canaan Valley got over a foot of snow while we were there, so the powder was fabulous... unfortunately my car didn't love it and we had to hike up to our rental house without it.


When we returned we dove right into our next huge project: floor refinishing. Our house has original hard wood floors, and we love them. It was one of the things we really went crazy about in the house when we bought it. They are in pretty rough shape, but in my very humble opinion have so much more character than new hardwood floors. We got a couple of quotes for getting them refinished professionally, but as we're just now digging ourselves out from underneath the earlier contractor bills, we were really hesitant to add another one to the pile. So of course this means, DIY. This particular project has been mostly HDI (hubs does it) so far, which I'm not complaining about!

Our house was added onto in stages, and so we have three different rounds of hardwood to work with. The most recent was added in the 1950s, and it's in our master bedroom and dining room. The third floor was done in the 1870s. And then we have the most daunting task of all- the living room and second bedroom, both done between 1800-1802. We started with the newest (read: easiest) floors first.

The hubs did a test run in the never-before-seen-on-the-blog master bedroom closet. This "walk-in" (okay so technically we can walk into it, but it's not like you're going to want to hang out in there) closet is off of the master bathroom, and I'm pretty annoyed with myself that I don't have a before picture of it anywhere. You can see the entryway to it here behind the hubs in this lovely old master bathroom wallpaper stripping photo. (DO NOT let the smile fool you! Wallpaper stripping is pure evil!)


So here is an almost before- more like an "oops, I'm pretty sure my wife wanted me to take some pictures before I started but I didn't remember until I was halfway through so this is the best you're going to get" photo.


Mmmm see all that lovely flare in the photo? That, my friends, is sawdust. If you've ever lived in a house while floor refinishing has been going on, then you don't need me to tell you about the dust. Even if you tape off the room, the vents, and the doors with plastic (we did), and even if you confine the sanding to a tiny enclosed area (the closet, hello), you will find yourself swimming in dust. It's a little bit like when you went to the beach as a kid and later found sand in your hair, in your ears, in, ahem, all of your parts. Try as you might to keep it contained, sawdust will escape and it will stick to everything!


Hubs used a hand sander for the closet because it was such a small space, but the big rental sander that we used for the bedroom had a vacuum attached to it which made the dust slightly more manageable.

Here's the space with all the sanding done- notice how much lighter the floor color is:


We decided to try a water-based poly, which did give the floors a nice smooth finish and great looking shine:


But I was bummed that the deep dark rich color of the wood was lost to sanding. We talked about staining the wood, but apparently it's a big pain in the butt process with one million steps and sanding in between. So I give all of the credit to my hard-working (hard-google-ing?) husband for finding the perfect solution for us. Coming up- we tackle the master bedroom and our closet gets a makeover by Ikea.

(Confession: these two homeowners have been living in their guest bedroom since December, just waiting to complete this project!)

CD Song List and Questions Answered

Better late than never? All of the Valentines (thirty-eight this year!) have been mailed off finally. Maine, California, Hawaii, Canada... these babies are all over! I beat myself up over CDs arriving broken last year, but this year I'm blaming it all on the post office. Does anyone know a better way to mail a CD than in a padded envelope? I paid to send them as packages so they shouldn't have been bent (hahaha), but I didn't pay for the fancy CD mailers and I know a bunch have arrived totally damaged. Anyways, did you guys get them? Did you like them? Did you eat the candy? Didn't get candy? I may or may not have eaten half of the candy.

Thanks to all of you who submitted fun formspring questions. Here are a few for you to check out. I've answered most of the ones I was asked, and you can see them all by clicking: here.

Where did you and your hubby get such the home renovating genes? Any past experience in that or parents that know what they're doing? Or did you guys just literally teach yourselves? I'm always in awe! by wifeylifey

I certainly had NO past experience- well except for this one time in grad school when I tried to paint my (rented) bathroom a "bright cheery" color and ended up with a room so ORANGE! that when you closed the door an orange glow escaped out from under and around the sides of the door. It was instant fake suntan when you walked in there. So let's just say I had no USABLE experience. Liam had painted before, was familiar with the tools in his toolbox at least, and has a little experience in some basic construction (his family business is general contracting, but they do more infrastructure type stuff). So mostly we googled, spent a lot of time in the home renovation section at Barnes and Noble, and did a lot of crossing our fingers. He was definitely the one who had the confidence to even TRY a lot of the stuff we did, and I am the one who did a lot of "are you sure you can knock down that wall?". Somehow it all just worked out.
This experience taught me that my husband is even more awesome than I already knew. He is so stinking smart. I mean maybe I beat him on the SATs, but the street smarts and common sense and practical knowledge in this boy's head? Yeah it blows me away.

Back at you - Besides making you extra awesome, what about growing up in Maine made you different or shaped who you are? AND do you want to move back someday? by fourthandfolded

I'm only starting to realize how awesome it was to grow up in Maine. You mean not everyone got to swim in the (freezing- the way it's supposed to be!) ocean every day of their summer vacation? See Moose in the backyard? Camp in National Parks? Even though I am by far the least "nature-y" of all of my Maine friends, I earn a lot of street cred with my husband when I put my childhood hiking, skiing, camping, etc skills to use! I also think that the way of life in Maine generally makes for pretty laid-back people and shaped me a little bit in that way. We talk about someday moving back- I'm not sure if that will happen or not. But I do know that any future children of mine will spend at least some part of their summers there!

Oh this is fun! What is your favorite holiday?

This one took me a long time to answer because I pretty much LOVE all holidays! Holidays are a big deal in my family and my Mom makes sure we celebrate even the little ones. But I've decided that my number one is definitely Christmas- it's just magical to me. I love all of the traditions, the bustle, all the holiday parties and just how festive the whole month of December is. A close second though, is my birthday. Call me a brat but that's what growing up an only child does to you!

What is your favourite thing about your new home? Is it your kitchen?

Hmm... my kitchen is definitely up there, but I think my favorite room in the house is the living room. I did the room in grays and blues, and I am totally in love with the patterns in the chairs and the rug. And yes I need to take decent pictures so I can finally post about it!